1983, Northeast China

Chapter 19: Helping the Police Arrest Someone

As soon as Li Cheng entered Chen Xiulan's house, his eyes widened.

There was still half a pot of chicken bone soup left in the pot, piping hot, and it smelled really good.

There was also half a piece of tofu dregs cake in the bowl next to her. It was the piece that Ya Ya had just dropped on the ground. She couldn't bear to throw it away, saying that she could wash it and give it to Huang Er to eat.

Li Cheng stood at the door and swallowed hard.

Aunt Wang saw this and tugged at him hard, "What's wrong? You look like you've never seen a pot before."

"That's pretty much it." Li Cheng sniffed. He was both hungry and cold. "These past few days, it's been so hard to even get a sip of hot water outside."

Hearing the noise from inside the room, Chen Xiulan sat up and asked through the curtain, "Is Li Cheng back?"

"You're back," Aunt Wang replied, then nudged Li Cheng with her elbow. "What are you standing there for? Aren't you going to greet me?"

Li Cheng quickly called out to the inner room, "Sister Xiulan."

Ya Ya peeked halfway out from behind the curtain, looking at Li Cheng with curiosity.

When Li Cheng saw Ya Ya, he tried to grin, but his face was frozen stiff, making his smile look a little strange. "Ya Ya has grown so much?"

Chen Shi didn't urge Ya Ya to call for help. Instead, he scooped a bowl of hot soup from the pot and handed it to Li Cheng. "Warm your hands first, don't gulp it down, it'll burn your throat."

Li Cheng took the bowl with both hands. His fingers were cracked from the cold, and when he touched the hot bowl, he winced in pain, but he couldn't bear to let go.

"Where did you come from?" Chen Shi asked.

"Over at the commune."

"You walked back?"

"I hitched a ride on a timber truck for a while, but then they stopped going this way, so I walked back." Li Cheng blew on the soup, took a sip, and his eyes lit up. "What kind of soup is this? It smells so good!"

"Chicken bone soup," Ya Ya whispered.

Li Cheng, holding the bowl, moved closer to her. "Did your uncle make this?"

Ya Ya nodded. "Pheasant."

"Wow. Then I'll have to drink it myself." Li Cheng pulled the bowl closer to his chest, then gestured with his chin towards Chen Shi, "You still have that ability now?"

Aunt Wang shoved the chopsticks into his hand, saying, "The capable ones are others. You're capable, so why have you ended up like this?"

Li Cheng didn't retort, but lowered his head and began to gnaw on the tofu dregs pancake. He gnawed it quickly and fiercely, gathering up the crumbs that fell with his hands and stuffing them into his mouth.

Aunt Wang felt sorry for him, but she still wouldn't let it go, saying, "Slow down, or you'll choke to death and no one will bury you."

Li Cheng stuffed his mouth full, puffed out his cheeks, and said, "You can't even choke if you want to outside."

After he drank half a bowl of soup, Aunt Wang asked, "Where's your aunt? Didn't she go to look for her?"

"Her family was also short of food, and my uncle complained that I ate too much," Li Cheng said vaguely. "I only stayed for a few days before I left."

"Then why didn't you come back sooner?"

"I figured I had to make something of myself," Li Cheng said, looking down at his disheveled state. "Otherwise, I'd just get yelled at by you when I got back."

"What does it look like?"

Li Cheng straightened his back. "It's not like I didn't do anything. I even helped the police catch bad guys."

Aunt Wang was surprised by this turn of events and was somewhat incredulous. "You? Catching a bad guy? You weren't begging in front of the police station and got chased away, were you?"

"They really caught them!" Li Cheng was so anxious that he almost spilled the soup. He quickly steadied the bowl. "They were at the commune's small restaurant. A few guys from out of town were acting suspiciously. I knew something was wrong as soon as I saw them."

Chen Shi, who was tending the fire, heard this and asked, stopping his fire poker at the stove opening, "Something's not right?"

Seeing that someone was finally asking seriously, Li Cheng immediately perked up. "They don't sound like locals. One of them has pockmarks on his face, and the other is wearing a dog-skin hat. They're sitting at the table by the window, and they're barely eating. I'm starving. They have food but they're not eating it. Can you believe it?"

"What happens next?"

"Later... they also said that no one else had sent anything, but they had prepared white face masks, and that the girl from Northeast China was easy to fool."

Chen Xiulan's expression changed immediately.

Aunt Wang asked, "Did you hear me clearly?"

"How could I not hear you?" Li Cheng swallowed a mouthful of soup, his lips greasy. "I couldn't afford food, so I was taking shelter from the wind. Those people thought no one was around, and they were speaking in hushed tones. It was only because I have good hearing that I realized something was wrong, so I went to find people from the commune. Later, the police came and questioned me several times."

Chen Shi asked, "Did they catch them?"

"I don't know if they caught them all." Li Cheng scratched his messy hair. "I saw them pinning down the guy in the dog-skin hat. The guy with the pockmarked face ran away or something. I was pulled aside by the police for questioning, so I didn't see the whole thing."

Aunt Wang slapped him again in anger, "How come you didn't even see everything properly?"

"I'm not a police officer!" Li Cheng shrank back, protecting his bowl. "It's pretty impressive that I can tell they're not good people."

If he had said that normally, Aunt Wang would have chased after him and scolded him for ages.

But no one responded to him.

Everything Li Cheng said matched up perfectly with Ya Ya's.

Chen Shi put down the fire poker and wiped his fingers across the ashes on the stove.

A pockmarked face, a dog-skin hat, and a deposit slip—these few things combined basically confirm the identity.

If that pockmarked man isn't held down, there are still people outside.

Li Cheng, oblivious to the awkward atmosphere in the room, continued, holding his bowl, "Let me tell you, the police even praised me, saying I was alert. If it weren't for me, those guys might have gotten away."

"Why did I praise you and then let you come back starving?"

"They gave me two steamed buns." Li Cheng said this a little embarrassedly, "I ate them on the way."

Aunt Wang turned around, picked up a rag and pretended to be busy, wiping back and forth in one spot. "Useless."

Chen Shi looked at Li Cheng. "What else did they say?"

"What did you say..." Li Cheng frowned and thought for a while, "The deposit slip, the red cloth and stuff, and things like picking people up, changing routes, it was all a mess. I was freezing cold at the time, so I didn't dare get too close."

Chen Shi said, "Eat first, then go to the brigade to find Uncle Zhao and repeat what you heard, word by word."

Li Cheng's hand, which was holding a pancake, froze in mid-air. "What do you need Uncle Zhao for? I just came back to tell my mother that I haven't been wasting my time out there."

"You're not just wasting your time," Chen Shi said, looking at him. "This might actually be useful."

Li Cheng puffed out his chest after hearing those words, and was about to boast when the sound of the sea suddenly came from outside the door.

"Shizi! Uncle Zhao wants you to come over there."

Dahai, panting heavily, leaned against the doorframe and took several breaths before continuing, "The commune replied, saying they really did catch an outsider, and told us to report any leads we have immediately."

Li Cheng was holding the bowl, his mouth still open.

Chen Shi glanced at him; he really wasn't making it up.

Aunt Wang was the first to get anxious. "What outsider? What clue? Dahai, explain yourself clearly."

Dahai, his face flushed from running, wiped his sweat and said, "How could I possibly explain it clearly? The commune sent me back to deliver a message saying that the things Uncle Zhao had sent earlier matched up something."

Chen Shi asked, "What did it match?"

"Human traffickers."

The person inside the room looked as if their vocal cords had been choked.

Chen Xiulan, in particular, lost all color in her face.

"Where's Uncle Zhao in the brigade?"

Dahai nodded, then greeted Li Cheng again, "Hurry up and go over there, he looks really anxious."

"Is it the thing I heard?" Li Cheng put down his bowl.

Upon hearing this, Aunt Wang immediately pulled Li Cheng back, saying, "You just got back, your feet aren't warm yet."

Li Cheng initially wanted to back down, but then he felt that he had a rare chance to be a hero and couldn't back down. "Mother, I really helped this time."

"He can't even speak properly."

"So what? I heard it too."

Chen Shi checked the door latches again. "Second Aunt, you stay here with my sister and don't open the door for anyone. Ya Ya, don't leave the hospital at all, and keep an eye on Huang Er."

Aunt Wang's scolding expression disappeared. "Don't worry."

Chen Xiulan's voice came from the inner room, "Shizi."

Chen Shi lifted the curtain of the inner room and saw that Chen Xiulan had already stood up, looking like she wanted to ask but didn't dare to.

"Sis, don't scare yourself," he said. "We have good news, that's great, it's finally over, isn't it? The person isn't at our door yet, but Yaya is here too. You stay at the door, I'll be back in a bit."

Li Cheng couldn't bear to leave the bottom of the bowl, so he ate the last bite, which burned his tongue a little, but he still followed Chen Shi out the door.